


But you can make me a drink

by voices_in_my_head



Category: White House Down (2013)
Genre: Donnie & Melanie are drunk buddies and it's great
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24597889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voices_in_my_head/pseuds/voices_in_my_head
Summary: "“Do you want go for a coffee?” Melanie asks Donnie, who finally lowers his eyes from where Marine One has gone up. He turns to her, but before he can say anything, she continues, “not asking you out! Just… I’d like to hear more about… All of this, really. Just… So I know what Emily is dealing with, you know?” (...)“I would love a hot chocolate,” he says. It’s too hot for one but he just beat a man with a German mantel clock so fuck it, he deserves a goddamn hot chocolate."
Relationships: Donnie the Guide & Melanie, John Cale/Donnie the Guide
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	But you can make me a drink

“Do you want go for a coffee?” Melanie asks Donnie, who finally lowers his eyes from where Marine One has gone up. He turns to her, but before he can say anything, she continues, “not asking you out! Just… I’d like to hear more about… All of this, really. Just… So I know what Emily is dealing with, you know?”

Donnie nods. He didn’t really think Melanie was asking him out, not right then, when she just spent the last hour of her life with her daughter as a hostage in the White House, and then thinking she was about to be blown out.

Donnie doesn’t particularly want to think about that. He knows it’s just a matter of time before he gets a crash from all the adrenaline, but for now…

“I would love a hot chocolate,” he says. It’s too hot for one but he just beat a man with a German mantel clock so fuck it, he deserves a goddamn hot chocolate.

“That sounds delicious,” Melanie says and they finally start walking away. A couple reporters try to talk to Melanie, the mother of possibly the most famous child in the world right now, but she either tells them no or full out ignores them, and so does he though of course, it’s not like they’re interested in him.

Not like he wants that anyway. If he got famous, he would absolutely lose his job. Too much of a security risk and all that. Of course, that makes a slightly hysterical laugh come out of his mouth. A security risk, really? The White House is still on fire; who even knows when he’ll go back to his job.

Melanie turns to him at the sound, but she doesn’t look judgmental or anything, just gives him a supportive smile and he smiles back.

Donnie feels like this is the moment to call someone and he knows all his friends and family would be more than willing to listen to him, but they would never understand. What could they possibly say? “Tomorrow’s a new day”? Melanie might not have been in the White House, but he can tell she feels about as stressed and tired as he does.

Of course, what with the fact that there’s just been a major terrorist attack on the American presidency – will they call it a terrorist attack, what with it having been orchestrated from home soil? – no coffee shop is opened.

“We should have probably seen this coming,” Melanie says, sounding… Well, exasperated. Like everything that is keeping her together is the idea of a hot chocolate.

“Yeah,” Donnie says, and before he can say anything else, Melanie keeps talking.

“Wanna go back to my apartment? I swear I’m not hitting on you, it’s just that I live with an eleven-year-old and I definitely have the ingredients for hot chocolate. I even have vegan marshmallows! Have you ever had those?”

“No,” he says and continues when Melanie stops, “I mean, I’ve never had vegan marshmallows. I’d love some. And I know you weren’t hitting on me. I wasn’t hitting on you when I offered a view of the White House, by the way. I was just…”

“Trying to find normalcy,” she finishes up and Donnie smiles, relieved.

“Exactly. And your apartment sounds great.”

“Good,” Melanie says and smiles and they walk back and pass the White House and then walk for another fifteen minutes before finally getting to Melanie’s car, making small talk. She sighs as she unlocks the car, “traffic is going to be a nightmare.”

Donnie can’t help it; he starts laughing. Melanie stares for a couple seconds and then she’s off too, bending down with her hands on her knees. Donnie has tears running down his eyes; his stomach actually hurts from laughing so hard.

When he finally forces himself to stop, he notices some people staring at them, a few clearly judging them while the others look concerned. But mostly people just continue on to their lives; ah, you gotta love D.C.

“This is not how I thought this day was going to turn out,” Melanie says once she’s forced herself to stop laughing as well.

“Tell me about it,” Donnie says and then they’re off again, but this time it’s not such a strong reaction, and it takes just a few seconds for them to pull themselves together.

“What about your car?” Melanie asks as she walks to the driver’s seat and Donnie opens the passenger’s door.

“It was inside the perimeter. So… I doubt I’ll be seeing it anytime soon,” he says when he’s sitting.

“That sucks,” Melanie says. Then she puts her seatbelt on, him doing the same, and then they’re out on the street. As expected, the traffic is moving very, very slowly.

“Yeah, well, I doubt I’ll be doing much driving in the next few weeks. It’s not like I’ll be back on the job anytime soon.”

“Yeah,” Melanie says and he sees her hands squeeze the wheel for a couple seconds, and then she inhales deeply and relaxes again. “I guess you could take a vacation.”

Donnie makes a humming sound. That’s an idea. It’s been quite sometime since he’s gone on holiday; he might go visit his parents, at least.

“And you, what do you do?” He asks and the small talk isn’t making him uncomfortable, but he can’t say there isn’t some awkwardness in the air. It seems the adrenaline is finally coming down, and now the two of them are just two strangers very, very slowly going through traffic.

“I’m a middle school art teacher,” she tells him and Donnie can’t help but to raise his eyebrows, though he doesn’t know why he’s surprised. It’s not like he actually knows her. “I also do art for children’s books.”

“That’s really cool,” he says, meaning it. “I’m a terrible artist.”

Melanie laughs and suddenly there’s no tension between them. She turns on the radio and they talk about music and books and it takes over an hour to get to her apartment, but Donnie isn’t feeling like excusing himself at all.

“I haven’t even had lunch yet,” Melanie says after opening the door to her apartment. “Can you believe all this has gone down and it’s only…” She checks her watch, “God, three pm?”

“Well, I sure hope someone cleans the staff’s kitchen before all the food goes bad,” Donnie says and Melanie laughs at that, something short but honest.

“I have some leftover lasagna. Vegetarian.”

“Are you vegetarian or is Emily?”

Melanie points to a stool and Donnie sits down. She talks as she opens the fridge and takes the food out, “well, one day when she was seven, she came home and said, “mom, today we learnt where hamburgers come from. I don’t want to eat animals anymore.””

Melanie puts the lasagna in the oven to re-heat and starts taking out dishes, cutlery and a couple of glasses. “I wasn’t going to force her, you know? Of course, I did think she’d get sick of it, or just bored in a couple weeks but… When Emily makes a decision, she sticks to it.”

“She’s a really amazing kid,” Donnie says, knows he’s repeating himself, but it’s definitely something that should be said more often.

“Yeah,” Melanie says and smiles softly. Then she turns seriously to Donnie, “I know I promised hot chocolate, but how do you feel about wine first?”

“God, please,” he says. It’s not like he’s much of a drinker but with the day he’s had, who’s going to judge him?

Melanie takes out a bottle of white wine from the fridge and uncorks it, pouring a very generous amount in both their glasses. Donnie takes a good couple of gulps before putting the glass down again.

After she’s taken her own gulp, Melanie puts both hands on the counter and lowers her head. Donnie doesn’t know what he’s supposed to do, but he at least has a pretty good idea of what she’s thinking about. So he moves a hand forward so that it’s on top of her right.

“Hey, she’s fine,” he promises.

Melanie laughs, but this time it doesn’t sound happy at all. In fact, it sounds as if she’s very close to crying. “If she wasn’t… I just… God, when they said her name on TV… And that asshole was going to blow her up! Jesus Christ.” Melanie takes a deep breath, then moves her hands to her hair, moving it back. Donnie takes his hand back.

“How do you feel about getting drunk with a complete stranger?” Melanie asks, staring him in the eyes.

“I say, bring it on,” Donnie responds and grabs his glass again, finishing it up and then grabs the bottle to top it off. “Come on,” he nods at her glass, “you’re getting behind.”

Melanie laughs but does grab her glass and finishes what it’s in it. Donnie pours some more wine on it.

By the time the lasagna is finally hot the bottle’s finished and Melanie’s opened a second one.

“You know, I make a mean gin,” she says as they eat.

“Yeah?”

Melanie nods, “I worked as bartender during college.”

“I was a valet.”

“Really?” Melanie asks, turning to him with raised eyebrow and it’s Donnie’s turn to nod.

“Yeah, at a fancy restaurant. It wasn’t a bad job, except for the few times where I couldn’t find the right key.”

“You ever get robbed?”

“Nah, the restaurant was fancy, but not that fancy.”

Melanie laughs and they continue to eat and drink.

She does in fact make an amazing gin. And a couple other delicious drinks that he doesn’t remember the name to, just knows that they taste pretty great – though not as good as hot chocolate – and that by the time they’re both sitting on the sofa, he is in fact very drunk.

Melanie’s put on a Taylor Swift album, which she swears belongs to Emily. Donnie doesn’t mind; it’s not something he usually listens to, but he likes the beat, even if he isn’t paying that much attention to the words.

It’s on the second song when Melanie jumps up and grabs his hand. “Come on, let’s dance!”

Now, on a normal day, Donnie would not say yes, him not being that much of a dancer and all that. But fact is, he’s had a lot of guns pointed to him today, and now he’s drunk in the apartment of the mother of the kid who is probably the bravest person he’s met in all his life, including her father, so dancing with her seems like… The right choice by this point, honestly.

Melanie is singing along to the CD, which just proves to Donnie that even if the CD is Emily’s, she certainly isn’t listening to it by herself, but he doesn’t say anything, just continues to dance, and sometimes even joins in once he’s got the gist of the chorus.

Donnie hears the front door unlocking, but doesn’t really register it until someone’s coughing. Both he and Melanie freeze and turn to stare at John and Emily.

Emily looks shocked, while John seems to be debating whether he wants to look worried or amused.

“Baby!” Melanie exclaims and goes to her daughter – not staggering at all – and then hugs her. “I love you so much,” she says and Emily smiles and hugs her back.

“I love you too,” she says and John puts a hand on Melanie’s shoulder and Donnie blinks, feeling like an intruder. He knows they’re divorced; Emily talks when she’s nervous, but this is… Well, he doesn’t belong at all.

After almost a full minute, Emily starts fidgeting and Melanie finally lets her go.

“I have to edit a video; I got an awesome interview with the president!” Emily says, really excited and Donnie smiles. He doesn’t doubt she’ll be feeling the shock of the day soon enough, but he’s glad that for now she’s acting as normal.

“Don’t accept any interviews without talking to me and your mom, you hear me?” John tells her and Emily rolls her eyes, but still nods.

“I’m glad you’re OK, Donnie,” she tells him as she passes him by on her way to her bedroom and he smiles at her.

“So, you guys have been having fun,” John says after the door’s closed behind her, crossing his arms, though he doesn’t look angry. Now that his kid is out of the room, he’s finally letting his amusement show.

“We were going to have hot chocolate but all the cafés were closed,” Melanie says, as if that explains anything. But John just nods, not questioning it. “You wanna get drunk too?”

John looks between the two of them and then shakes his head, “I don’t wanna interrupt. Do you want me to take Emily tonight?” The question, he asks in a lower tone, but the living room isn’t that big, so Donnie still hears it. Melanie just snorts.

“I’m not gonna sleep with Donnie.”

“Hey! No need to sound so… So…” Donnie frowns, not being able to think of the right word.

“You’re my drinking buddy, Donnie! And do you know how many male friends I have that don’t try to sleep with me? They’re either gay or married.”

Donnie blinks, “I’m bi.” He’s not entirely sure why that seems like an important thing to say, but it’s usually to what his brain jumps to when he hears the word “gay.”

“That’s great, buddy!” Melanie gives him a thumbs up. “So’s John.”

“Melanie-” John starts and she turns to him, putting a finger against his lips so that he stops talking. Which he does, still looking amused.

“Shh. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is gone, you can be open now.”

“Right, and I am. But I don’t think Donnie cares,” John says which Donnie… Refuses to think too hard on. It’s not like he doesn’t not care.

“Just because I’m not sleeping with him, doesn’t mean you can’t,” Melanie says, in what she thinks is a whisper but is barely lower than her normal tone. John, to Donnie’s absolutely delight, is blushing. Donnie would probably feel embarrassed as well if he hadn’t drunk quite a good amount of alcohol for the past couple of hours.

“Right, I think I’m cutting you off,” John says and Melanie actually whines. “You said something about hot chocolate, right? Why don’t I make us some?”

“OK,” Melanie says and walks back so that she can throw herself on the sofa, sitting with her feet on the ground but moving so that her head is lying on a pillow.

Donnie goes to help John in the kitchen, not really knowing what else to do. Taylor Swift is still singing about… Well, Donnie has no idea, but he assumes it’s about love.

“Do you want some help?” He asks and John jumps a bit from where he’s pouring the milk – soya – into a pan to heat up on the stove.

“I’m good,” John says and turns to him once the milk is being heated. “I didn’t think I’d be seeing you anytime soon.”

And ah, here comes the blush. Donnie moves a hand to the back of his neck, moving his hand against his neck. He’s still feeling drunk, so his thoughts are coming slower. Before he’s finally settled on one, John continues.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to sound accusing or anything.”

“Melanie wanted to hear about… Everything. So she knew what Emily will be dealing with,” Donnie offers. Then he frowns, “we didn’t actually do any talking.”

John’s eyebrows go up at that and Donnie immediately moves his hands around. “Not… Not like that! We didn’t talk about… the attack. We did talk about other stuff. She does drawings for children’s books, did you know?”

John smiles and maybe he did before the tour went to shit – and isn’t that an understatement – but in Donnie’s memories, he’s just been really worried and honestly, had a bit of a wrath-of-god aura going on. The smile suits him.

“Thanks,” John says and Donnie almost jumps out of the window. Great, he’s passed to the phase where he says shit without thinking it through.

Before Donnie can decide just how he wants to deal with this – possibly plead the 5th? – John moves around the kitchen to take out four mugs and pour a healthy amount of hot chocolate powder into each.

“I was promised vegan marshmallows,” Donnie says and John turns to him with another amused smile. It takes him opening a couple cupboards before he finally finds them and once he’s poured in the milk and mixed every single mug, he puts some marshmallows into all of them.

“Here,” he says and passes a mug to Donnie, whose life is clearly moving from action film to romantic comedy because when their fingers touch, he doesn’t want John to let go. But of course, he does, and then Donnie is just holding onto a mug which has… a Lincoln quote? And not just any quote but _“we the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”_

After he’s done reading, Donnie raises his eyes to John, who smiles.

“It’s Emily’s.”

“Of course,” he says and takes a tiny sip, happily realizing that the hot chocolate is just at the right temperature. Hot but not to an amount where he’s burning his tongue. “This is really good.”

“I’m glad you approve of my hot chocolate,” John says, still smiling and it’s… Unfair, really. Because he’s still just wearing what used to be a white tank top and hasn’t showered, so he’s dirty and bloody, but he’s also very attractive. And now he’s smiling and maybe… Flirting?

“Thanks. And I am,” John says and Donnie nods, putting his mug down.

“Excuse me, I’m just going to throw myself out of the window,” he actually takes a step to do as promised, but John moves a hand to his arm, stopping him, but also laughing.

“I said I was flirting with you, right? No need to feel embarrassed.”

Donnie nods, but that doesn’t actually stop him from still feeling like he needs to escape. John seems to get that because he lets go.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“No, no, I’m not…” Donnie is still feeling the drink too much to say that word. “I just… You caught me by surprise.”

“Believe me, you did too,” John says but he just sounds amused. Donnie picks his mug up, takes another sip.

“Can I take you out?” Donnie asks, not really thinking it through. But John said he was flirting and why the hell not? Donnie just survived the White House being attacked by a bunch of extreme-right fanatics; John saying no is absolutely not the worst thing that’ll have happened to him on this day. The idea of what those extremists would have thought of this does make him laugh.

“What?” John asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Just… I wonder what the guys from today would think about the guy who single-hand…” He frowns, tries a different approach, “who took them out by himself going on a date with a man.”

John laughs too and it is a really nice laugh.

“Not that you have to say yes because of that, obviously!” Donnie says and moves his mug around, which is thankfully not as full anymore that he drops any liquid.

“I’m not saying yes because of that. I’m saying yes because you’re cute and I know you did what you could for my daughter.”

“Not enough,” Donnie says and frowns. He still remembers that guy… Stein? Stenz? Coming in and pointing a gun in Emily’s face and how he just kept sitting there.

“Hey,” John says and puts a hand on his arm. “You did what you could. Which is a lot more than most people would.”

“Roger Skinner actually got up and said “you’ll have to go through me.””

“Jesus Christ, I owe a thank you to Roger Skinner?”

Donnie just shrugs; he’s pretty sure Skinner did it more for his image than for Emily’s sake, but the fact is that he still did it.

“Now that I’ve added a very unexpected point to my to-do list, let’s get back on track, yeah?”

Donnie just nods and John smiles and squeezes his arm before letting go.

“I’d love to go on a date with you, Donnie.”

Donnie smiles, a real, big happy one.

“That’s great!” He says and doesn’t feel ashamed in the least by the way he sounds so excited about it. John continues to smile and Donnie wants to kiss him. So he puts his mug down and slowly moves his head forward, so that John knows what’s coming. John’s smile simply goes softer as he stays put.

Their lips meet and Donnie can’t help but to sigh against John’s mouth. It’s a chaste kiss, just lips touching lips. John moves a hand to Donnie’s jaw, rubbing his thumb just below Donnie’s ear, who smiles.

He lets go, moving back to his space, John’s hand falling from his face, though he just puts it on top of Donnie’s on the counter. “You know, I have the best pep talk now.” He continues in a voice deeper than his actually is, “you survived an attack on the White House. You can do this.”

John smiles, “it is a pretty good pep talk.”

Donnie nods, proud at himself.

“The hot chocolate is probably cold by now,” he says and John laughs.

“Melanie’s fallen asleep and I’m pretty sure Emily is just going to say she’s busy.”

“And you?” Donnie asks and John shrugs.

“There’s better things than hot chocolate.”

Donnie smiles and moves to kiss John again. Hot chocolate is pretty great but John’s right; some things are better.


End file.
